Letter: Mom is proud of Payne

You may remember my letter of several years ago stating that I had had the privilege, over 50 years before, of meeting Tony Payne in the delivery room of Maine Medical. Now he is running for re-election to the Falmouth Town Council, so let’s review his record.

As you may have noted on his signs, he is “cautious with your money.” You, his fellow taxpayers, are his only ” special interest.” As each new service, project or program has come before the council, he has personally researched not just the initial expense, but what is too often overlooked: maintenance and replacement costs.

He is a specialist in damage control and crisis management. At 10 he learned, while managing a large paper route, that money doesn’t grow on trees. While a student, his summer jobs included cemetery upkeep, construction work, sign-painter, merchant mariner, intern to a U.S. senator and finally full-time campaign worker in another Senate race.

As an adult he has been a property manager, owner of an advertising firm, public relations officer and officer of a large insurance business. Currently he is executive director of the bipartisan Alliance for Maine’s Future.

Tony is community minded, and is very active as the father of three sons. I think he has served us well and we owe it to ourselves to re-elect him. (And, though it’s not a prerequisite for the job, he’s awfully good to his mom.)